“American Mystic is a documentary about three twenty-somethings, each a member of a fringe religious community, who have separated themselves from mainstream America in order to live immersed in their faiths. The film intertwines very intimate, apolitical portraits of individuals in depressed areas of the country trying to lead more extraordinary, mystical lives: Kublai, a Spiritualist in the former revivalist district of upstate New York; Chuck, a Lakota sundancer in the badlands of South Dakota; and Morpheus, a pagan priestess living off the grid in old mining country in southern California.”

“I actually spent time with Pagans in Montana, Tennessee, and other areas of California (as opposed to where Morpheus lives) before I even connected with Morpheus. I also had plenty of phone and email chats with Pagans in other states along the way, and a lot of people were lovely, really forthcoming with tips and thoughts on how to be faithfully represent Pagan practice. You’ve talked about this yourself, Jason — the ways in which the Internet has made it easier for Pagans to interact and find each other. The Internet definitely made some aspects of my search easier. But at the end of the day, when someone is still in the “broom closet” in an area of the country that’s hostile to what locals think being a “witch” involves, you need to build a relationship in person. I met a wonderful witch who lived in the hills of Tennessee who initially had me meet her at a truck stop diner to make sure that I was who I claimed to be. Eventually, I spent time at her home, and she really wanted to tell her story — but the fear of being outted in such a hostile environment was too much for her. She was afraid of threats to her or her family, or of losing her job. And she had good reason to be cautious.

When I finally met with Morpheus, in her khakis (nothing like her ritual gear!) after her day job, we clicked pretty quickly. And when once my producer and I stayed with her and her husband Shannon at Stone City, we all had a hunch that this would be a great fit. There was also the plus of being able to tell the story of this Pagan sanctuary they were in the earlier stages of building up on their land.”

Jason Pitzl-Waters

Wonderful! My local Pagan group had a showing of this film back in April, but regrettably, I had to miss it. Thank you so much for posting this!

Charles Cosimano

I’m sorry, but I’m not very impressed. All it seems to be is a collection of stereotypes made flesh.

http://www.wildhunt.org/blog/ Jason Pitzl-Waters

Yes, because your shtick is so very original.

S.Moore

You are so Right. Kubela is the perfect example of shameless stereotyping. Rofl

Harmonyfb

Yay! Now I can get it ordered at our local library!

Masery

Jason thanks for letting us know. I saved it in my Netflix que. It isn’t actually available to watch there yet, though.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=685041384 Fanny Fae

Thanks for letting us know about this Jason. As a cinema arts major, with a particular enthusiasm toward documentaries, I look forward to seeing this one and would love to see more films by, for and about Pagans, paganism and on topics that are of interest to the community.

Crystal Kendrick

I bought this months ago as a direct download. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Now I will request that the public library order a copy.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=636701735 JoHanna M. White

Apparently the Netflix deal isnt finalized. People need to add it to their queue to show netflix there is a demand.

http://twitter.com/ValValkyrie ValerieValkyrie

How does one do that? When I navigate to the title, there is no way for me to add it, it just says the title is unavailable.